Van-Tam: risks and benefits of AZ jab finely balanced for the young

Britons under the age of 30 will be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine due to mounting evidence linking the jab with blood clots, the UK medicines agency has ruled.

At a press conference this afternoon, June Raine, Chief Executive of the MHRA, insisted that the move was down to an excess of caution and that “the balance of benefits and known risks is still very favourable for the majority of people.”

By the end of March, 20 million AZ doses had been administered in the UK and 79 cases of rare blood clots after vaccination had been observed. Nineteen of these were fatal. While this did not amount to proof that the jabs had caused the clots, the link was getting firmer, the agency said.

Meanwhile, the European regulator, the EMA, has concluded that blood clots are a likely rare side-effect of the AZ vaccine. There was no change to the official EMA advice, that “the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19 overall outweigh the risks of side-effects,” although it advised people to look out for symptoms that indicate clotting.

The MHRA recommendation is a blow to the reputation of a vaccine the government has resolutely defended for weeks, in the face of EU nations restricting AZ for certain age groups. That said, it’s a sign of the strength of the UK vaccination programme that alternatives to AZ are available. The verdict coincides with Elle Taylor, a 24-year-old carer from south Wales, being given the UK’s first dose of the Moderna jab of which the government has secured 17 million doses.

Whether the public sees it like this is another matter. Coming to a firm conclusion about the causal link between vaccines and clots is fiendishly difficult because the clotting is so rare. But effectively communicating the subtleties of the risks posed might be even more challenging.  

Crucially, the risk calculus is not static. Charts presented by Professor Johnathan Van-Tam, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, showed that when levels of Covid circulating in the population are low, the risks from the AZ vaccine narrowly outweigh the benefits in the under 30s. But when the disease is more prevalent, the analysis tips in favour of all age groups being given the jab. 

Whatever the nuance, the bottom line for many will be that there are legitimate question marks over the AZ vaccine.
 
Salmond cosies up to the Kremlin

Alex Salmond has been branded a Putin “apologist” after he refused to blame Russia for the 2018 Salisbury poisonings and downplayed evidence of Russian interference in US elections as “very slight”.
 
In an interview with BBC’s Good Morning Scotland, Salmond also said that suggestions of Russian interference in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum were “laughable”, despite the Intelligence and Security Committee concluding last year that the referendum marked “the first post-Soviet interference in a Western democratic election”. 
 
Critics were quick to point out Salmond’s links with Russia Today, the Moscow-funded and state-controlled broadcaster, which has aired his talk programme, ‘The Alex Salmond Show’, since 2017.
 
Lib Dem MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton condemned Salmond’s answers as an “utter disgrace”, while Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said: “He has been paid by the Russian state broadcaster for years and the result is his change from respected leader to spinning Russian propaganda lines.”

Ground control to major tectonic disturbance

News from 33 million miles away has, quite literally, sent shockwaves across the Galaxy. NASA’s InSight lander – launched to give Mars its first thorough check-up since it formed 4.5 billion years ago – has been fitted with a carefully designed seismometer that measures tectonic energy, which has detected rumblings coming from the red planet’s interior.

Scientists believe the seismic activity – which originated near the Cerberus Fossae, where two previous tremors occurred – came from a build-up of energy, the source of which remains unknown.

This time of year on the Red Planet is best suited to detecting “Marsquakes”  because of low winds and levels of radiation energy still high. Tantalisingly, the instruments are set to be turned off next month for hibernation, adding to the mystery of what the disturbance might be.

 Mattie Brignal,
News Editor